It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Sunday 20 April 2008
Monday 7 April 2008
Friday 21 March 2008
another inconvenient truth
When Japan sends out a fleet to shoot whales, Australia is hugely outspoken and moves into action by helping fund and publicly support the anti-whaling actions of the Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin. But when China sends in its troops to shoot Tibetan monks, Australia says little and does nothing. What a disappointment.
Sunday 9 March 2008
Friday 29 February 2008
ah, the irony
A US officer with the 101st Airborne Division learns Arabic at a combat outpost in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji, near the oil city of Kirkuk.
view from the outside in
Two aliens are flying by our planet. One alien looks down and says, "It seems that the dominant life force here has been able to figure out satellite weapon technologies."
The other alien asks, "Do you mean to say there is intelligent life on this planet?"
"It does not appear to be so", the first replies. "They have it aimed at themselves!"
Sunday 24 February 2008
Sunday 17 February 2008
the 'power' of the media
One death is a tragedy.
One million deaths is a statistic.
[35,000 children die every day in 3rd world countries; UNESCO]
Saturday 9 February 2008
Sunday 27 January 2008
Saturday 26 January 2008
Sunday 30 December 2007
urban angel
angel: n 1. a messenger and servant of God, usually represented as a person with large wings and dressed in white clothes 2. a spirit that watches and guards one -see also "guardian angel" 3. a person especially a woman, who is very kind, good, beautiful etc.
Friday 28 December 2007
it's all about US
When we hate someone,
it is because we hate some part of ourselves in their image.
[Herman Hesse]
Thursday 27 December 2007
knowledge = a glass house
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
[Isaac Asimov]
Sunday 23 December 2007
the Status Quo
The order of the world is always right -- such is the judgment of God. For God has departed, but he has left his judgment behind, the way the Cheshire Cat left his grin.
[Jean Baudrillard]
Tuesday 18 December 2007
the loneliest time of the year
A woman spent all Christmas Day in a telephone box without ringing anyone. If someone comes to the phone, she leaves the box, then resumes her place afterwards. No one calls her either, but from a window in the street, someone watched her all day, no doubt since they had nothing better to do. The Christmas syndrome.
[Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories]
Saturday 1 December 2007
Saturday 24 November 2007
Wednesday 14 November 2007
Sunday 11 November 2007
Tuesday 6 November 2007
Sunday 4 November 2007
television
The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
[Roald Dahl]
Monday 29 October 2007
hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia = fear of long words.
Now who the heck came up with that one!
Now who the heck came up with that one!
Sunday 21 October 2007
Wednesday 10 October 2007
much ado about nothing
for thousands of years human history has been a magnificently futile conflict, a wonderfully staged panorama of triumphs and tragedies based on the resolute taboo against admitting that black goes with white.
Sunday 7 October 2007
the things we do to make a living
You lie for a living.
You're not a bad person, not really, but telling the truth at your current
company tends to get people fired.
And you can't afford to be fired. You're thirty seven, you've got three
kids, you've got a big house to pay for, your wife would leave you within
nanoseconds if the cashflow ever dried up, and it's been well over over a decade since a cute, random girl in the street looked at you with anything even faintly resembling a sparkle in her eye.
Society only needs you because they need the product your company makes. Lose the job and you are no longer needed. Without your job you're just a mere stain.
So lying equals survival.
You have to lie because you have no other ideas about how not to be killed. How not to lose everything.
Lying replaced ideas long ago. Lying replaced great sex long ago. Lying relaced your marriage long ago. Lying replaced joy long ago.
Your lies became the painless cancer.
Yes, I've read your resume. Very impressive.
Look, I already said I'd get back to you next week.
gapingvoid
Saturday 6 October 2007
Saturday 22 September 2007
Sunday 16 September 2007
the difference between reputation and character
Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is who you really are, while your reputation is merely who others think you are.
Saturday 8 September 2007
Friday 7 September 2007
Sunday 2 September 2007
mad world #2. APEC
The first week of September is APEC week in Sydney. Bush will be in town; and so will everyone else. And the city has been preparing itself this week for the visiting 21 heads of state ...
... with water cannons; riot police buses; 3 meter high walls erected around the Opera House and vacinity; massive road closures; random police security checks on any person walking in certain areas of the city; military jet planes swooping overhead; soldiers wandering through shopping malls brandishing pretty serous military equipment; ads on TV asking everyone to be "alert"; and the city has been declared a virtual out-of-bounds this coming Friday-Sunday [by declaring Friday a NSW State Holiday].
I know most of this because I work in the city. Right in the middle of the city, on Barrack Street. And when, as per usual, i parked my ute [pick-up] on Barrack Street on Thursday afternoon, I did what I always do; i dropped my car keys in the back of my ute, under the cover [thus hidden from view]. When i returned to my ute 90 minutes later, the keys had been swapped with a note written on 'official' police paper; "report immediately to The Rocks Police Station."
The constable behind the counter knew who i was when i walked in, because i fitted the description. "Middle aged. Shaven head. Olive skin. Blue backpack on your back." And then he said to me, "You fit the description". No shit Sherlock.
Apparently some alert person had spotted me suspiciously park my ute, leave my keys in a suspicious place, walk off suspiciously in a suspicious direction, with a suspicious blue backpack on my back. I also had suspiciously dark skin colour and, as if all this weren't enough, I had two anti-American stickers on my rear window. He called the police, they strip searched my car, and took off with my keys.
I had to make account of myself to the constable on a number of key points 1. what is your name? 2. do you have proof of your ID? 3. is this your correct address? 4. why were you in the city at that time ? 5. what type of work do you do? 6. why did you leave your car keys in such a strange place 7. why do you carry a backpack? 8. why do you have a knife on your key ring? [a tiny, silver 3cm Swiss Army knife]. My answers were recorded in his little black book.
By the end of my interrogation I had been reduced to green alert - of the lowest possible threat to security - and the constable handed me back my car keys. But he had one final word for me before i could walk away a free man. "You DO know it's illegal to carry a knife, sir?" he said. And I, like a scolded little schoolboy, said "Yes", and took the Swiss Army off my key ring.
Sunday 19 August 2007
nibbled to death by ducks
In our world there is an agreed-upon reality of values. More is better. Bigger is better. Faster is better. And modern technology will achieve all three of these desirable goals.
Slowly but surely, we are being removed further and further from nature, from the soil, the weather, the sun, the wind, and all natural processes.
In other words, we are being ‘nibbled to death by ducks’.
[click to enlarge]
Slowly but surely, we are being removed further and further from nature, from the soil, the weather, the sun, the wind, and all natural processes.
In other words, we are being ‘nibbled to death by ducks’.
[click to enlarge]
Saturday 11 August 2007
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